PressPausePlay
Synopsis
A Film about Hope, Fear and Digital Culture
The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunites. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.
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Popular reviews
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Technology and manufacturing have progressed to the point now where the tools for creating professional music and films are accessible, and affordable, to the general public. But the resulting democratisation of these creative endeavours may prove to be both liberating and terrible at the same time... With more people than ever trying their hand at it, what is the cultural cost of this new freedom of expression? Will it result in an eventual decline to the mediocre, or is this the start of a new surge in creative progression? Will true artists get lost in the noise?
These are some of the issues that PressPausePlay aims to tackle. Rather than being a one-sided affair, the documentary covers the current situation…
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Documentary about a bunch of people who have somehow got high on their own self-importance. All I could think about was how terrible their come-down is going to be.
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The revolution is happening in front of our eyes. It doesn’t feel like a revolution because it’s neither fast nor bloody, except… well, except it actually is.
Through interviews with artists and pundits, PressPausePlay looks at today’s world in which the creation tools and distribution channels for professional-grade books, music, and movies are for the first time available to almost everybody. Will this give us more art? Will this give us more garbage? Or maybe both? No one really knows, but it won’t keep us from guessing.
Production-wise, the documentary is impeccable. Fresh soundtrack, fantastic video and audio editing, gorgeous and stark design – in many ways this feels like a spiritual successor to Helvetica. But it’s a shame that…
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A missed opportunity. While it does a good job focusing on the tools now available to help amateurs create their work, it only provides a cursory glance at modes of distribution. Why does a filmmaker like Lena Dunham succeed while countless others languish in obscurity? One author (I forget his name) brags about the success of self-publishing, but he was already a name author, so can we really attribute his success to the mode of creation rather than the method of distribution? Hopefully, someone will make a documentary about what PressPausePlay missed.
Recent reviews
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Stylish. Decent. A little hit and miss, but some interesting guest contributions like Seth Godin and Lena Dunham make it well worth it.
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A rather unpolished and inconclusive documentary about how the nature of modern distribution has changed the production of art, particularly music and film. The film talks to a bunch of people including technologists like Seth Godin and Sean Parker, musicians such as Moby and members of Hot Chip, policy wonks like Hillary Rosen, and a bunch of others. They discuss how barriers to entry are lowered (or at least different) now, and how (depending on who is talking) that's a good thing or a bad thing. They discuss how technology can free artistic people from the rigors of acquiring particular skills, and how that's a good thing or a bad thing. They mention that filmmakers may not now need formal…
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Grandioso documental sobre la creación en la era digital. Me sorprendieron algunos encuadres, para ser un documental está grandiosamente filmado.
De a momentos es algo lento y algunos aspectos me parecieron irrelevantes, pero hace pensar muchísimo y da una excelente reflexión. -
An insightful, well-made documentary that tackles the subject of whether or not digital advances have elevated or burdened the arts industry. 'PressPausePlay' is more heavily focused on music, but does cover movies, ebooks, and graphic arts, as well as discourse on democratization of art itself. Interviewees include Lena Dunham, Apparat, Ólafur Arnalds, Moby, Hot Chip, Robyn, Lykke Li, among others.
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Some interesting truths.
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Interesting film. I definitely don't agree with everything they're saying and I feel like some of the opinions expressed are kind of pretentious, but with reason. It's half depressing and half inspirational. I can dig it.
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Documentary about a bunch of people who have somehow got high on their own self-importance. All I could think about was how terrible their come-down is going to be.
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Good but felt too fragmented. Should have been done as a ten part series about media instead of 90 minutes.
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Being in the arts I have to agree with lots of the things mentioned in this documentary. Loved it.